After speaking to Darren last night I think I will wait until they have a true 1440p+ per eye before I get one. I realise his DK2 is lower res than the consumer versions of each product but it is still too low. I hope once they get the first round of devices out there using existing screens from phones they will have the cash to make a proper superultramegawide panel that has a 32:9 aspect ratio. The graphics card wouldn't need to be any faster as it is already out putting that res.

Resolution isn't the be all and end all when it comes to VR, of course more will be better but things like pixel fill are more important for reducing the screen door effect for example. I also don't think either the Vive or Rift are using what you could call existing phone screens, they're custom built as far as i know. The point about GPUs isn't quite correct either, for a given resolution VR rendering is quite a bit more intensive.

Seriously I wouldn't write off the current gen HMDs just yet, you've got nothing to lose to just wait until someone you know has one and you can test it out. You just won't know if it's good enough for you until you try it. I've been using my DK2 in iRacing full time for nearly two years now and despite the significant compromises there's no way I'd go back to screens. If my DK2 broke today I just wouldn't race until I either got another DK2 or my CV1 arrives.

Ah ok, I'll have to do some research. I was fairly sure the DK2 is a note 3 screen so 1920x1080 split into 960x1080 and the Vive is an LCD based phone screen (smaller subpixels) @ 2560x1440 split into 1280x1440, it is then stretched to a normal aspect ratio via the lenses and the gfx card is still seeing 1920x1080 x2 or 2560x1440 x2.

After playing around with 1.3 with the DK2 this past week I'm thinking I'll just stick with the DK2 for a while, I really can't afford $1k right now, and the DK2 will also be easier on my hardware. I reckon I can live with it for a while, and see if the prices eventually come down (I'm hoping they'll eventually be available in shops, which should make them cheaper to get here).

renesis37 wrote:Ah ok, I'll have to do some research. I was fairly sure the DK2 is a note 3 screen so 1920x1080 split into 960x1080 and the Vive is an LCD based phone screen (smaller subpixels) @ 2560x1440 split into 1280x1440, it is then stretched to a normal aspect ratio via the lenses and the gfx card is still seeing 1920x1080 x2 or 2560x1440 x2.

Ah crap sorry. I've missed something along the line. Are you talking about picking up a DK2?

SO no, they aren't using phone screens, they've had custom panels developed. But rendering two separate images at the resolutions you are talking about will require a serious GPU boost. I doubt the next gen of stuff would even be up to that task.

It's not just the resolution that's the issue. It's rendering 2 different frames simultaneously. They are very similar images, but to get the stereoscopic effect, they have to have a slightly different perspective. The world would have no depth if it was just rendering the same image on both eyes.

I think once they optimize SLI for VR, then we'll be able to see some big leaps in resolution. I know it's in the works, but from what I can tell, it's still not well implemented.

Then of course there is the issue of ramming such an enormous amount of pixels on such a small panel. We will need another leap like Apple made with the retina technology on their stuff.

We have a long time to go before we get crystal clear, low latency VR. But having never tried any thing VR related to this point, I'm pretty keen to get my headset.

I've used the DK2 a fair bit, and experienced similar res to the current consumer releases with some other stuff. There's an upgrade there, but not a massive one. I actually don't think it matters much. You really stop noticing the resolution once immersed. It's not the same as looking at a 2D panel.

It's definitely something you have to try yourself. I'm happy to demo Rift CV1 to people in Sydney when I get it.

I probably made it sound worse than it really is but it's a matter of how much you're willing to give up for the benefits you get. For me I can live with the blurry distant vision to get the immersion and freedom to look around but I know others aren't. in my opinion it's miles better than a single monitor, but the trade offs are a lot greater vs triple monitors.

pab wrote:After playing around with 1.3 with the DK2 this past week I'm thinking I'll just stick with the DK2 for a while, I really can't afford $1k right now, and the DK2 will also be easier on my hardware. I reckon I can live with it for a while, and see if the prices eventually come down (I'm hoping they'll eventually be available in shops, which should make them cheaper to get here).

You might not have much choice there unfortunately. They've said it's only supported in 1.3 to allow devs time to transition to CV1 and it's not supported in Oculus Home, though it works currently. We don't know if it will work with future runtime versions. The question at that point is whether OpenVR will support old runtimes. If so then DK2 may have extended life as an OpenVR headset with Steam games.

DarrenM wrote:It's definitely something you have to try yourself. I'm happy to demo Rift CV1 to people in Sydney when I get it.

I probably made it sound worse than it really is but it's a matter of how much you're willing to give up for the benefits you get. For me I can live with the blurry distant vision to get the immersion and freedom to look around but I know others aren't. in my opinion it's miles better than a single monitor, but the trade offs are a lot greater vs triple monitors.

pab wrote:After playing around with 1.3 with the DK2 this past week I'm thinking I'll just stick with the DK2 for a while, I really can't afford $1k right now, and the DK2 will also be easier on my hardware. I reckon I can live with it for a while, and see if the prices eventually come down (I'm hoping they'll eventually be available in shops, which should make them cheaper to get here).

You might not have much choice there unfortunately. They've said it's only supported in 1.3 to allow devs time to transition to CV1 and it's not supported in Oculus Home, though it works currently. We don't know if it will work with future runtime versions. The question at that point is whether OpenVR will support old runtimes. If so then DK2 may have extended life as an OpenVR headset with Steam games.

Ah, OK, I'd seen people referring to support for at least 12 months, they must have just been making assumptions. we'll let's see how long the DK2 can keep me going for a make a decision when I have to.